I worked in Japan for more than 12 years in the eighties and nineties, in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo with the U. S. State Department, Citibank and Merrill Lynch. After many more years in China in banking (Deutsche Bank and Ping An Bank) and consulting, I am back in Tokyo conducting the business of Yangtze Century Ltd. (Hong Kong/Shanghai) and producing this blog. E-mail me at smharnerco@yahoo.com.

Fewer Japanese Students Studying Abroad

I was intrigued a few months ago when I heard a news report that some of the best Japanese universities, like Tokyo University, were finding it difficult to meet commitments to leading foreign universities by supplying Japanese students for designated overseas study programs. In other words, after universities like Harvard and Stanford had gone to the trouble setting up reciprocal or unilateral exchange programs and had reserved thereunder a number of positions for students from Japan, the Japanese university was failing to produce the students.

The news report was partly about the embarrassment this situation was causing the Japanese institutions. But the deeper question was also asked: why are Japanese students not interested in studying abroad? And I would add, how tragic that young Japanese are willing to pass up such an opportunity.

Now the numbers are in. Today’s Nihon Keizei Shimbun presents (on its front page no less) data from the Ministry of Eduction. The OECD data show that in 2008 (the most recent data available), Japanese studying abroad in undergraduate and graduate programs decreased by 11 percent, the steepest fall ever. At year-end, the number stood at 66,833 persons. Anecdotally, we can expect that the number continued to decline in 2009 and 2010.

The number of Japanese studying abroad has been declining since 2004. But why? Undoubtedly it is the brutal job market for new graduates, and the fact that the last six months of the school term is now essentially dedicated to job-hunting, a process of networking and data gathering, as well as interviewing in which it would b impossible for those studying abroad to participate, even if their study programs were so light as to afford them the time to do so, which is unlikely if the university is Harvard or Stanford.

Another, more saddening, possibility–which I think is actually the fundamental issue–is that Japanese students feel that they will be disadvantaged in competition to enter, and then, if accepted, to advance within Japanese companies if they have studied abroad. This is because they might not join the company with a “class” of Japanese university graduates and would not have the same support network of sempai and kohai if they did. Graduating from a Japanese university and then going abroad for an advanced degree, such as an MBA, is somewhat more complicated. The biggest concern might be that Japanese companies would have trouble integrating these degree-holders into their rigid personnel systems, particularly as these persons would be considered “mid-career” hires. But looking beyond the advanced degree itself, students might hope and expect to find a job abroad and work for a few years before returning to Japan. In this case, they would find entry into Japanese firms even more problematic.

Meanwhile, how about foreign study in Japan? Actually it continues to grow, and in May 2010 totaled 141,774 students, up 7 percent over the previous year. What are we to make of this? Firstly, we can point to its main driver: China. Of the total, 86,173 foreign students in Japan were Chinese, up 9 percent year-over-year. Most of the other foreign students in Japan are also from Asian countries. I will find the precise data and report later.

Lately I have been visiting the economics departments of some Japanese universities. What is really fascinating is the number of Chinese students in these departments, many on their way to becoming PhDs. In most cases the research they are doing is related to China, or to Japan-China economic relations. Whatever else may be true about this situation, it should certainly be producing a lot of scholarly thinking about Japan-China relations.

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